Marine microbial metagenomes sampled across space and time.

Recent advances in understanding the ecology of marine systems have been greatly facilitated by the growing availability of metagenomic data, which provide information on the identity, diversity and functional potential of the microbial community in a particular place and time. Here we present a dataset comprising over 5 terabases of metagenomic data from 610 samples spanning diverse regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. One set of metagenomes, collected on GEOTRACES cruises, captures large geographic transects at multiple depths per station.

Single cell genomes of Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and sympatric microbes from diverse marine environments.

Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are the dominant primary producers in marine ecosystems and perform a significant fraction of ocean carbon fixation. These cyanobacteria interact with a diverse microbial community that coexists with them. Comparative genomics of cultivated isolates has helped address questions regarding patterns of evolution and diversity among microbes, but the fraction that can be cultivated is miniscule compared to the diversity in the wild.